An Unholy Alliance
by pleasing-phoebe
Summary: Todd survives his throat being slit and returns to his former occupation a doomed man. But fate has other plans in store... Could Todd achieve his eternal salvation? STILL BEING UPDATED
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Elyria.

Walking down the backstreet, the rats scurry off into the shadows thrown by the buildings in the night. The stench of scummy water, smog and burning coal fills the air, and the mists swirl. A light flickers in the window of a building in Fleet Street. It is the flat above Mrs Lovatt's Pie Shop.

"So sir, what'll it be, sir? A quick shave?" The barber's beautiful razor flashes through the air and glint in the candlelight as he cuts bristles from the man's chin – and then his throat.

A footstep is heard on the wooden staircase, and the barber swings around, pushing his foot down on the lever that sends the body down to the cellar.

"Who's there?" No reply.

"I said who's there?" He runs to the door and throws it open wide, to see a hooded figure standing there. "What do you want?"

"A word with you, Mister Todd." The voice is female, which throws him, and he runs a hand through his hair.

"What does a pretty woman like you want with an old barber like me?"

"She's a woman who knows about your Lucy. What you did to her. And what can save you."

"Save me? Nothing can save me, I'm a cursed man." He fingers his throat gently – a long scar runs across it. A knife slit.

"Cursed?" She laughs hollowly, without emotion. "No one's as cursed as I am, Barker."

"How do you know my name, woman? I'm losing my patience with this game." She slides back her hood with a gloved hand. Her face is framed by long blonde hair, and her eyes are hidden in the shadows. Her full lips are dark red, in contrast to her pale skin, barely visible in the candlelight. She is a ghost, or so it seems.

"It's no game, Barker. I'm from a place far beyond your imagination, beyond anything you've ever known."

"Are you from God?"

"No, love. I'm from Hell."

Todd swallows. His hands are shaking so much he drops the ornate razor.

"Hell? What do you know of Hell?"

"I know of eternal fires that burn underfoot. I know of excruciating pain endured by the damned in the seventh level of Hell. I know much, you'll find, of the worst fate a man can have."

"And what do you want with me?"

"It's not what I want. It's what your Maker wants. Or, more precisely, your God and my Master." Todd's face pales, and he sits down in his own murderous chair.

"And what does this mean?"

"We're offering you the salvation of your eternal soul."

"For what price?"

"You have to continue killing. But, they can only be those we instruct you to kill; the Damned."

"Well, isn't that good?"

"You'd be surprised. The boss is awful pernickety about such things." The woman pulls the gloves down a little, covering the entirety of her hands. "Will you do it?"

"Can I think on it?"

"No. We'll be in touch, Barker."

"Who are you? I mean, you appear here, and attempt to persuade me that you're from the Devil, and then leave without another word?" Todd flounders when she does not reply. "A name, at least!"

"My name?" She looks at Todd, her eyes still cloaked by darkness. "Elyria. Tell no one." Without another word, she pulls the hood back over her golden head and hurries out of the door. Todd does not watch her leave, and he does not see her literally melt into the darkness.

When Elyria reappears in the world below, a howling scream awaits her. She swings around, and sees a young man tied to a wall, crying out to her for help.

"Please! Help me!! Cut me loose!" She slides back her hood and shakes the hair from her eyes, and the man looks directly into her eyes, then gasps. They are dark bottomless holes, a deep blue which extinguishes the difference between iris and pupil; eyes which continue infinitely into her mind. They are filled with sorrow, and pain, hunger and lust for something unimaginable. A whole different universe seems to exist in those eyes.

"What would you have me do? I serve Lucifer, not you." The eyes are sad as she looks at him, sliding the gloves off her hands to reveal beautiful white hands with long, slender fingers. "Do you know why you have been brought to me? To this chamber?" He shakes his head, panicked eyes flashing from side to side. "Oh… I see… I'm sorry." She walks over to him and gently runs an index finger down his naked chest, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. He screams as the flesh boils and parts beneath her touch. "I am so, so sorry…"

As the man is dragged away, looking at his scarred chest and weeping like a baby, a shadow appears at the back of the cave. She looks at it over her shoulder and sighs, crossing her arms and rubbing her pale arms. She comes to no harm from her own touch.

"I did my best, you know. But when its men like him… good strong men… it's hard."

"There is no time for worry in the world of damnation. Is my little Angel of Death losing her touch?" The shadow does not appear to move, but Elyria feels a touch on her cheek; cold as ice, it burns into her skin. She moves away.

"Just make sure you do as I say. Return to Todd tomorrow. I shall compile my list tonight." As the shadow disappears, Elyria shudders and pulls her gloves back over her snow-white hands.

_A/N and Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Sweeney Todd. Only time I'll say so._

_I'm back. Who missed me? New writing style, studying the effect of a present tense story. Please read and review m'dears, if this style doesn't work for you I'll change it._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – The Hand Of The Devil.

It is the next day, under the cover of darkness, that Todd encounters Elyria again.

"So you are real?"

"Real? If that's how you put it."

"I had assumed you to be a dream."

"Even dreams can come to be reality. You of all people should know that, Barker; for how long did you dream of your vengeance?" Todd is quiet and starts to mop the floorboards clean of the blood, thinking. Elyria clicks her fingers and a list appears in a puff of smoke, and names begin to appear in fiery writing.

"What's this?"

"Your list of victims. Your eventual salvation."

"It's a long list."

"You have time, Barker. The fates have decided it."

"My God… so this is a definite arrangement?" Todd runs a hand over the stubble on his chin, and takes a few steps back in shock.

"What would you know of God?" Elyria sneers and tosses back her golden hair with a gloved hand, her eyes once again hidden under the black shadows that seemed to surround her. "You never were one for religion. A short spell in Purgatory, then Hell, that's what this God of yours would do for you."

"And our arrangement is any better?"

"Have I ever been anything but straight with you? Did I not stipulate the exact terms of this contract? Terrifying and horrific as this deal may seem, Lucifer has held nothing back from you. He knows what lays in store for you."

"And that is?"

"Nothing. Death is nothing." Elyria sits on the window ledge, staring out of the smudged glass panes and continues, with a deep melancholy lying heavy in her voice. "In Death, we see all. We see the end of worlds, the panic and hunger of the poor, the gluttony and vanity of the rich. Life is shallow, purposeless. And then we are Judged. The great Saint Peter of Heaven's pearly gates evaluates your achievements, and if you are to be deemed worthy you go through these gates into what mortals believe to be the eternal paradise." She is mocking by the end of her speech, and her fingers curl into fists at the mention of Peter.

"You sound sceptical," Todd says, edging towards her slightly to get a better look at her face. "Especially about Peter."

"Peter deserves nothing! Did he not denounce the man he swore he would always believe in? He should've been the one damned to Hell, not Judas. Judas did what he did out of guilt, and he asked the forgiveness of this God of yours."

"Suicide is a mortal sin, Miss Elyria."

"Suicide is despair. Your God should protect His people from such despair, else how can He deem Himself to be this great protector? This… this shepherd," she spits angrily, "supporting His flock throughout their trials and tribulations? If I did not know Lucifer, I would swear this God is a lie."

"Why can you not say this now?" Todd is close to being able to see past Elyria's hood, and he can already see her pale nose, which is small and almost button-like on her face. Her lips are again that same shade of dark red against her skin, and there are small drops of red liquid on her chin from where she has been spitting so angrily. The droplets, Todd knows, are blood.

"There cannot be a Hell if there is no Heaven, Mr Barker. It would be imbalanced." She wipes the blood off her chin with the back of a gloved hand and takes a deep intake of breath. When she is calmer, she looks at Todd. He still cannot see her eyes.

"Will you not remove your gloves, madam?" He is intrigued as to their purpose, and catches Elyria off guard.

"What? I don't think so…" She tugs gently at the top of each finger as she works them loose nervously, exposing her wrists. Todd marvels at the ivory paleness of her skin, so like marble, and instinctively reaches out to touch her right hand.

"Barker. Don't touch me."

"Why?"

"These are the hands of the Devil, darlin'. Just take this list, and make a start tomorrow. They're on there in order of when they'll make an appearance, don't you worry. And don't you dare think of cheating me, Barker – I'll know. And your punishment will make you wish you'd never crossed me."

"And what makes you think I should be scared of you and your cheap magic tricks?" There is a quake in Todd's voice, and from her shadowed face he feels the mysterious eyes pierce him.

"My cheap magic tricks? You'll see sir. Oh how you'll see." With that, her body slowly fades from view in front of Todd's disbelieving eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Sweet Dreams.

After Elyria's exit, Todd looks at the list she gave him. There are a good few hundred names on the list, and Todd's eyebrows shoot up in shock. What a list it is. He rubs his stubbly chin with a rough hand, and sits down on the chest to think. He gazes out of the window at the starry night and taps his foot, thinking. How can this woman be real? She has too ethereal a beauty, too wise a manner for a human. And she definitely is not something from Hell, he concludes. Probably just a deluded woman with knowledge of cheap magic tricks who'd smoked too much opium and was now paying the price. He gets up and goes to his bed, lying down to sleep after his long day.

In his dreams, he is with Lucy and Johanna. They are having a walk in the park when a dark cloud overshadows them. Johanna cries, and as Todd tries to comfort her the shadow plucks him from the ground and swallows him whole. Inside the cloud he screams, cries like a baby, begs for his life, but the cloud will not release him. Then, from nowhere, comes a voice.

"Barker… you will do your duty. In London town, the rivers will run red with your wrath!"

"But… But… I cannot kill!"

"Well, we all know that isn't true!" Elyria glides up to him, beautiful as ever, her eyes still hidden from view. "I still smell the blood on your hands from today's murderous gains." She smiles slightly, and her incisors seem to be slightly pointed. Todd has heard about this phenomenon before, and he whispers the word under his breath.

"Vampire."

"Yes darlin'. I'm sorry, but if you didn't put it together yourself… Besides. I'm no ordinary vampire. I'm magic."

"Leave me be! I have no interest in vampires or magic or assassinations… just leave me!" There is a deep rumbling laugh from somewhere inside the shadow, menacing and strange, and so it speaks again.

"Very well. My Lady, do as you will." Elyria hesitates, watches the cloud disappear from the air and pulls one of her gloves off. Very gently, she skims Todd's skin with a finger and he screams, falling back from her. She puts a finger to her lips and slowly fades away.

Todd jolts awake, all caught up in his blankets. He rolls out of bed and stamps his foot. It is still night, and he says clearly,

"Elyria! I demand to see you!" He waits a few moments, and he hears her voice, a strange mixture between upper class and working class dialects;

"You called?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I did. I just had the strangest dream and I want you to tell me what it meant!" He claps his hands together and yelps in pain. He wonders, has he hurt his hand during the night's tossing and turning? But closer inspection of the strange mark on his hand reveals it to be a burn in the shape of a finger. A long finger. He swings round and looks at her.

"You! You were in my dream!"

"No, I wasn't. My Master pulled you out of your dreams. He was just… ensuring you got the job done." She pulls at her gloves, masking her appendages from the fingertip to the wrist.

"Your Master? The shadow?"

"Yes. Although, he isn't always a shadow. He often appears as a human actually. Suited and booted, nice top-hat… you've probably seen him around. He speaks highly of you, you know."

"I don't care – he's the Devil!"

"I don't deny that. But if you got to know him, you'd find him rather intriguing I'm sure…"

"How do you know him?!" Elyria seems momentarily stunned by Todd's anger, but then recovers herself.

"I'm a loyal servant to His Infernal Majesty."

"We both know that isn't true… you're just a cheap trickster, one not unlike those you see in a travelling circus!"

"Then how do you think I got here so fast?"

"You were under the stairs. I'm not stupid."

"I never said you were stupid. I just noticed that you seem to edit what you see to fit the way you wish to see the world. To find the justice you seem to believe exists. So I questioned you."

Todd steps away from her and points at his door. He seems too angry to speak to her, and she makes no movement.

"I was scaring you, you realise. Look." She smiles, and her teeth are perfectly normal. She taps them to demonstrate and Todd raises an eyebrow. "What will it take for you to trust me? It will be easier for the both of us if you do." A beat passes.

"Your eyes."

"What?"

"I want to see your eyes." Elyria's cheeks pale even more at his request, but her hands move up to her hood.

"You realise that once something is seen, it cannot be unseen?" Todd merely nods, and she slides back the hood. He looks into her eyes and sees how deep they truly are. He shudders slightly at their coldness, and the longer he maintains their gaze the further into despair he plunges. She breaks the stare, and pulls the hood back over her golden hair. "Do not ask again, Barker."

To break the tense atmosphere the revelation has created, Elyria paces around the attic, her steps silent on the creaky floorboards. She runs a gloved finger over the back of Todd's torturous chair and swings it around so that she might sit in it.

"Would you put me in a pie, Barker?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your pies that you make with that vile lady downstairs; Mrs Lovatt, isn't it. Would you put me in one?"

"If I knew you could die, I'm sure I would try to."

"Why? Do I threaten you?" She spins herself about on the chair, creating a swirl of black skirts and shadow, as Todd tries to think of how to respond. Her presence does terrify him, but on the same token he has become strangely comfortable with her random appearances in his home. Todd, smelling smoke, turns back to the chair fearing a fire and looks for a water jug, but when he looks back at the chair it is spinning alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4.

As Elyria descends through the levels of Hell, she gazes about her at the examples of human idiocy. How could people end up in such a place as this? It is not difficult to be God fearing, she thinks. She was, once upon a time. But now what had happened to her; she was undead and a serial liar, carrying out the direct orders of the Devil. Upon reaching her humble abode she opens her dark coffin and lies in it, the lid wide open due to the heat. She pulls off the black gloves and inspects her ivory hands, looking for any flaws in the luminous paleness of her skin. She finds none, and flings the gloves away from her. Closing her eyes, she looks back upon her life and for the millionth time tries to find out where she has gone wrong…

"_Mother! Mother, come quickly and see!" The child was excited and happy, running along a grassy path on a warm June day. The woman behind the little girl tried to pick up her skirts a little, but her heavy boots prevented her from picking up much more speed. The woman's chest was heaving underneath the tight whalebone corset, but she did not complain as she followed her daughter into the woods. Eventually, they stopped under a tall tree and sat upon the moss-covered boulders._

"_What are you showing me, sweet child?" The woman tried to catch her breath, but she could feel herself growing dizzy._

"_The magic of God, Mother. See how the moss grows in a pattern? And how all the animals just live happily? It's magic, I know it is." The woman smiled._

"_My dear, you should always have your faith. As long as you have faith, you will have a Father who loves you and a mother who will never leave you."_

"Don't dwell on that, Elyria. It is passed now, and there is nothing either of us could ever do." A voice cuts through her thoughts. She opens her eyes and sees a smartly dressed man gazing down at her, his smile sad and meaningful.

"Oh, Master. It's you." She sits up in the coffin and stretches out in a feline manner. "I wasn't expecting company."

"I know. I just thought I'd… well I don't know entirely what I thought. I wanted to see you, to make sure all is well with Barker."

"Yes Master, all is well on the surface. Am I to assume you are making a journey to the living?"

"Indeed; that Jack the Ripper fellow has finally got to go, and I don't trust anyone else with the job. I can rely upon you to be there when I bring him down?"

"Yes, Master." Elyria looks at her hands and is shrouded in guilt at the horrors she has inflicted upon the many souls kept in eternal damnation. She closes her eyes and feels a hand burning like fire upon her own.

"Do not worry so, my love. There was a time you never did." She opens her eyes and smiles graciously, and feels his kiss as cold as ice against her cheek. She feels nothing as he turns and leaves, his gaze still upon her.

She doesn't remember when it began. Her time in this underworld has ceased to be formed of years and is instead an eternity. But one night, after she has returned from a course of torture, her Master is awaiting her. He speaks softly to her, words of love and passion she did not know could exist in such a place. Finally, he kisses her gently and she responds, seeking to be consoled. The iciness of his kiss never changes, the intensity of his passion when he takes her, or the emptiness that remains with her throughout. She knows she can never touch him the way he longs for her to touch him. She can never feel for him the way he feels for her. She is emotionless, and has been since the day her mother died.

"_Mother? Are you well?" Her frightened voice filled the room as she stepped into it. There is no reply from the white, overtly clinical bed and the girl takes another terrified step forward. There was a cough, and her mother made a wheezy attempt to inhale some more air and catch her breath. Drawing closer to the bed, the golden haired child sat down on the chair and laid her head gingerly on the bedding. Her mother's hand found her head and stroked it gently. Her breath rattled around her dry throat and the little girl licked her lips nervously._

"_Water, Mother?"_

"_No child. Just sit a while with your mother, and tell her about your day."_

"_Well I went with Father to town and we bought some lovely flowers to brighten the room a little, but the doctor said the pollen would irritate you so we left them in the hall for you to see when you get well. Then I went and played in the garden and Nurse came out and asked me what I wanted for tea so I said went to the kitchens and said jelly and then Cook boxed my ears and said jelly was not for tea. And then I prayed in the chapel that you would not die. I found my diary in there, and it says you have been ill for three months now. Mother?" The woman was no longer stroking her hair, and the rasping had ceased. Hysterical now, the child cries for her mother until she has no tears left and the doctors pull her away from the bed. The next time she sees her mother, she is lying in a velvet lined coffin._

The tears are beads in Elyria's eyes as she lies in her coffin. She sniffs gently and rolls on to her side, wondering what the next day will bring.


End file.
